The Climate of Greece

The climate in Greece is typical of the Mediterranean climate: mild and rainy winters, relatively warm and dry summers and, generally, extended periods of sunshine throughout most of the year.

Greece is situated in the most southeastern part of Europe, confined to the areas between the 34 and 42 parallel N., with a meridional extent from 19 to 28 E. and bordering the Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea and the East Mediterranean Sea.

The climate in Greece is typical of the Mediterranean climate, which is mild and rainy winters, relatively warm and dry summers with, generally, long sunshine duration almost all the year. A great variety of climate subtypes, always in the Mediterranean climate frame, are encountered in several regions of Greece. This is due to the influence of topography (great mountain chains along the central part and other mountainous bodies) on the air coming from the moisture sources of the central Mediterranean Sea.

Thus from the dry climate of Attiki (the great area of capital, Athens) and generally of East Greece, change over to the wet one of North and West Greece.In terms of climatology, the year can be broadly divided mainly into two seasons. The cold and rainy period lasting from the mid of October until the end of March, and the warm and non -rain season lasting from April until September.

During the first period the coldest months are January and February, with, on average, mean minimum temperature ranging between 5 -10 degrees of Celsius near the coasts and 0 - 5 over mainland areas, with lower values (generally below freezing) over the northern part of the country.

Rainfall in Greece even in the winter, does not last a lot of days and the sky does not remain cloudy for several consecutive days, as it happens in other regions of the world. Winter bad weather days are often interrupted, during January and the first fortnight of February, with sunny days, well known as âAlkion daysâ in ancient times.The winter is milder in islands of Aegean Sea and Ionian Sea than in the North and East Greece.

During the warm and non-rain period the weather is almost stable, the sky is clear, the sun is bright and generally does not rain. However there are scarce intervals with rapid rain or thunderstorms of small duration mainly in mainland areas.

The warmest period is the last ten-day period of July and the first one of August, when the mean maximum temperature lies in the range of 29.0 and 35.0 degrees of Celsius. During the warm period the high temperatures are dampened from the fresh sea breezes in the coastal areas of the country and from the north winds blowing mainly in Aegean, well known as âEtesianâ.

Last Climatic Bulletin

May was a relatively cold month for the first few days but
it became hot gradually from the middle of the period.
In parallel two significant dust episodes from Africa took
place at 5/5 and 17/5.
Also heavy thunderstorms with hail affected locally the
northwestern parts of Attica .....